Spycam cappuccino machine

Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: this Amanti espresso setup in the Melbourne airport in which each machine was equipped with a little webcam on the barista's side and a small color LCD on the customer side, so that you could watch the barista's hands dance and twiddle as he pulled your crema. Link

[#1 posted by musicman , January 16, 2008 1:09 AM]

Love yr enthusiasm cobber, but as a local, I wouldn't trust the Melbourne Airport ("Tullamarine Airport") coffee ever. But I will go watch. I noticed my barrista in the zone yesterday, and it was like watching a ballerina. Awesome.

[#2 posted by sorted , January 16, 2008 6:50 AM]

"barista's hands dance and twiddle as he pulled your crema", uh sorry, not my bag. Interesting tech however, dunno, I'd like something like this for food prep behind the counter or in restaurant/fast food outlets, 'cause ya neva' know.

[#3 posted by jonathan_v , January 16, 2008 7:19 AM]

That shot is of a semi-automatic espresso tamper - it packs the grounds with a set weight. You can buy a Macap one in the US for ~300. Odd use of an LCD - all these things do is uniformly pack the grounds.

There is a another shot in the series of an espresso machine with 2 lcds... the closest lcd seems to be a screen of the airport hallway. i can't tell what is going on in the second lcd.

[#4 posted by Judan Suki , January 16, 2008 7:37 AM]

Phew, i'm glad they didn't have them at the cafe where I used to work. It's enough to have your boss watch your every move from the security camera. Goddamn! This really sucks.

[#5 posted by pedmands , January 16, 2008 9:19 AM]

Don't webcams technically have to broadcast to the web in order to be called webcams?